It is an handbook that explains the main psychometric theories and the statistical techniques needed to develop a sound psychological test. Chapter 1 is a historical and theoretical review about measurement of psychological variables. Chapter 2 deals with the paramount importance of defining the content domain of the construct, its operationalizations and the target population as first steps to develop a psychological test, and considers the main approaches to scaling (classical test theory and item response theory). Chapter 3 explains how to develop items avoinding biases due to poor wording and technical shorcomings. Chapter 4 deals with the investigation of content and face validity and with item analysis. Chapter 5 describes factor analysis and the assessment of construct and criterion validity. Chapter 6 deals with score standardization and norms development. Online materials are also provided on the publisher's website: "Approfondimenti" (additional material about topics not covered in the book, more detailed descriptions of statistical models, etc.), and "Strumenti Informatici" (how to perform the statistical analyses described in the book and in the supplemental material with SPSS, Excel, R, Mplus, FACTOR).

It is an handbook of introductory statistics for psychologists. Chapter 1 introduces the basic concepts of psychometrics (measurement in psychology, tests, items, reliability, validity, etc.), Chapter 2 presents basic descriptive statistics, Chapter 3 introduces probability, combinatorics and the logic of hypothesis testing, Chapter 4, 5 and 6 explain how to perform analysis with one, two and three or more samples, respectively, for nominal, ordinal and metric dependent variables, Chapter 7 deals with methods for assessing bivariate association. Exercises and questions are provided at the end of each chapter to help readers test their understanding of concepts and statistical procedures. Online materials are also provided on the publisher's website: there are solutions to exercises, "Approfondimenti" (additional material about history of psychology and psychometrics and more detailed statistical tests, like post-hoc tests, power analysis, etc.), and "Strumenti Informatici" (how to perform the statistical tests described in the handbook with Excel and SPSS).

Chiorri, C. Overcoming non-random assignment to treatment conditions in observational studies: An introduction to Propensity Score Analysis. Invited talk for the Advanced Quantitative Research Methods Special Interest Group (Quant SIG) Meetings. University of Oxford, 2011.

Chiorri, C. (2011). The curious case of Big Five questionnaires confirmatory factor analyses: issues and solutions. Invited talk for the Advanced Quantitative Research Methods Special Interest Group (Quant SIG) Meetings. University of Oxford, 2011.

Ubbiali A., Chiorri C., Hampton P., Garofalo A., Donati D. The usefulness of the Healthy Functioning Rating Scale SWAP-200 (HFRS-SWAP-200) to evaluate which psychological features can predict the course of the treatment in individual psychotherapy. Presented at: 42th International Meeting of the Society for Psychotherapy Research (SPR). Bern, 2011.

Ubbiali A., Chiorri C., Donati D. The Italian version of the Big Five Inventory (BFI): psychometric properties and cross-cultural validity. Presented at: 42th International Meeting of the Society for Psychotherapy Research (SPR). Bern, 2011.

Donati D., Ubbiali A., Chiorri C. Psychology and Medicine: an Italian proposal for joining forces between experts from different theoretical backgrounds aiming at integrating psychotherapy into an holistic approach to the patient’s need. Presented at: XXVI SEPI International Conference: One or many sciences for psychotherapy: what constitutes evidence? Firenze, 2010.